Uh Oh, Craigslist Is Shutting Down Its Personals Section

Craigslist has shut down all of its personal sections, even the platonic ones, thanks to the Senate passing H.R.1865, an anti-online sex trafficking bill that has the potential to seriously harm consenting, adult sex workers. Craigslist made a public post regarding the bill commonly known as FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act).

“US Congress just passed HR 1865, “FOSTA”, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully,” it said. “Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day. To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!”

Basically, now Craigslist would be legally responsible for the whatever kinds of illegal interactions users ultimately took part in. So they were like, nope we’re not having any part in that.

A bill like FOSTA could play a role in fighting off sex trafficking, reports Gizmodo. However, the bill is causing a chilling effect that gooses sites like Craigslist to close up at least part of their shop and actively hurts consenting sex workers who rely on the website, Gizmodo adds.